Well last week Immigration Canada came out with a huge surprise for those individuals that do not fit in the 0, A or B noc. That includes healthcare workers, cleaners, cooks, cashiers and a total 135 essential occupations in Canada that have been so active during the Covid-19 virus.

Immigration Canada has continued to surprise us with the Health Care workers to permanent residence for those Refugee claimants in Canada and even given work permit to Visitors who were in status. This last year has be unprecedent.

Getting back to the original message in this blog.

So, the program opens on May 6 and will extend until November 5 of 2021 or until they have filled the 20,000 healthcare workers and 30,000 other essential workers that qualify.

There is also the French PR pathway which has no limit of how many applicants can apply. This is for people who live or want to live outside of the province of Quebec.  They left this open because the difficulty of finding individuals who speak French outside of Quebec.

So, what do you need to qualify? You need to have at least one year’s work experience in the last 3 years in one of the essential occupations. This list is broken down into two annexes A and B.

Annex A is 40 occupations in the healthcare stream area and 95 in Annex B under the essential worker’s stream. You may qualify if you have done part time work or have 1560 hours in an essential occupation.

Under both of the streams you must have been in Canada during the time you file the application and have valid status or still be able to qualify for restoration and you must plan on living in a province outside of Quebec.

You must have a clb level of at least 4 for those who wish to qualify under the French stream and same for English it must also be a CLB 4 in all areas.

And of course, you must not be inadmissible because of medical or criminal issues.

So, if you are in the healthcare industry and are a temporary resident you must have worked exclusively in the health-related essential service and any work experience outside of the healthcare industry cannot be counted.

In the B stream you can use all work experience that qualifies under the essential workers category. It can be multiple employment

Now there is also an alternative variation to this is for students that have attended a DLI and completed an education course that was not started prior to January 2017.

You must have graduated with a diploma, degree, certificate or attestation and the course(s) must be equivalent to a 2-year credential and each course must have been at least 8 months in duration and meet the 16-month duration.

You must have valid status in Canada with a valid permit and have a CLB 5 in all categories and also been in Canada during the submission of the application for Permanent Resident.

For more information on this program, you can contact us through the website.